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The aim of this essay is to examine the drama elements used in Faulty Towers and to compare and contrast this British comedy with the Italian street theatre Commedia Dell arte Faulty Towers episode Kipper and the Corpse uses many of the same comical devices as Commedia This drama is based in a hotel and focuses on the misfortunes of the owners and the staff as they try to run this business There are four main characters in the 1970s British comedy These characters include Basil Fawlty who is the owner of the Hotel Basil has constant mood swings and is quite money hungry Cybil Fawlty is Basils wife and she nags Basil a lot and always has something to winge about Basil and Cybils relationship is comical as it not the ultimate marriage There are two servants Polly and Manuel Polly is a maid who is intellectual and humorous Polly often assists Basil to get out of trouble Manuel is the Bus Boy who is Spanish and cant speak English fluently Manuel often misunderstands people For instance one of the guests asks for a bowl of warm milk for her dog She then asks him to place the bowl on the table Manuel then places the pillow on the table The guest replies by asking clearly for the bowl on the table and the pillow under the dog Manuel is very short and this creates humour The action of this satirical play revolves around a guest passing away and the staffs efforts to dispose of him as soon as possible Commedia Dell Arte is a form of improvised drama which originated in Italy in the Sixteenth century Commedia uses stock characters and is a form of theatre for the common man Commedia techniques are often used as a base for many popular comedies of today including Seinfield Third Rock from the Sun and The Simpsons Commedia contains eight stock

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